SLEA to release book on ‘Achieving Economic Goals in the midst of Global challenges’

The Sri Lanka Economic Association (SLEA) on Friday 29 June will launch a book titled “Achieving Economic Goals in the Midst of Global Challenges” containing the proceedings of its 2011 Annual Sessions.

It will be held at HARTI Auditorium, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, 114, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7 at 4.30 p.m.

SLEA President Prof. A.D.V.de S. Indraratna will address the launch with former Central Bank Deputy Governor W.A. Wijewardena presenting a review of the book.

To be wonder of Asia, Sri Lanka must do better than the rest of Asia. She must not only perform better than the so called economic miracle of East Asia but overshoot the growth rates of the present economic power houses of India and China.

To this end, several objectives targets have to be achieved by the end of next five-six years such as the following; Double digit economic growth of 10%; Inclusive development with reduction of the 40% of the population now receiving less than US$ 2 per day to about 20% and 6% of the population receiving less than US$ 1 to around 3%; Budget deficit of 3% of GDP; Positive current Account deficit with official reserves sufficient for more than six months of imports; Realistic exchange rate without much volatility; National debt of less than 50% GDP, with its foreign debt component constituting less than half of it; Sri Lanka should have attained above targets by 2016 if she wishes to be looked up to as Wonder of Asia, and a role economic model, by other Asian countries.

These are extracts from the new volume of research papers published by Sri Lanka Economic Association. This book contains the research papers read by several eminent economists of the country. The Contributors to the this volume are; A D V de S Indraratna, C P A Karunatilake,

Saman Kelegama, Sarath Rajapathirana, Anoma S. P. Abhayaratne, Thushari Vidanage, R M K Rathnayake, Nilakshi De Silva, Gayathri Lokuge, Arunika Meedeniya, and Ramani Gunatilaka.

This publication is an edited version of the collection of presentations made at the 2011 Annual Sessions held at the Centre of Banking Studies of the Central Bank, at Rajagiriya, on 14-15 October, 2011.

In the recent past, the developing world, along with the rest of the world, has been seriously affected by a series of global crises, first energy and food, and more recently the financial and economic crisis-all of which have presented threats to development and challenges to the achievement of national economic goals.

Sri Lanka is no exception. Being a small open economy, heavily dependent on international trade, it is directly exposed to crises in the world economy and as a result, has been contemplating how best it could formulate economic policies to achieve strong economic fundamentals.

The 2011 Annual Sessions of the Sri Lanka Economic Association (SLEA) dealt with this issue.  This volume, an outcome of the proceedings of these Sessions is a collection of presentations made by several eminent economists in the country.